Iran to respond in kind if interests endangered: IRGC commander

Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps for Political Affairs Brigadier General Yadollah Javani

Nthnews

A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned any country that seeks to endanger Iran’s interests, particularly the United States, saying Tehran will retaliate in kind in such a case.

“If some seek to endanger the Islamic Republic of Iran’s interests, Iran will also endanger their interests with its capabilities,” IRGC’s Deputy Commander for Political Affairs Brigadier General Yadollah Javani said in an interview with Tasnim News Agency published on Saturday.

He added that if the Americans seek to continue with their bullying attempts, the Iranian “Armed Forces will use their own capabilities and potential to safeguard the Iranian nation’s interests.”

In response to a question about US threats to stop Iran’s oil exports, Javani emphasized that the Islamic Republic would carry out “credible” reciprocal threats.

“When a country threatens Iran and raises this issue that it can block Iran’s oil exports if it wants to, Iran’s reciprocal threat would be a credible threat,” the IRGC commander pointed out.

A senior US State Department official said late in June that the countries purchasing oil from Iran should prepare themselves to completely stop the Iranian crude imports by November as Washington re-imposes sanctions against Tehran.

The US official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that Washington seeks “to isolate streams of Iranian funding” for the Islamic Republic’s “malign behavior across the region.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on July 3 lashed out at American officials for threatening to stop Iran’s oil exports, saying they would never be able to carry out such a threat.

“The US [officials’] statement in this regard is unilateralism … and a breach of all international rules and regulations in energy and trade sectors,” Rouhani said.

Javani further emphasized that it is impossible to guarantee security in regional waterways without the presence of the Islamic Republic given the country’s geopolitical position.

He added that “foreign interference” and measures by agents linked to foreign and extra-regional countries have been the “most important factors behind instability in the region.”

He reiterated that the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are secure for the transfer of oil and energy.

Javani’s remarks came a few days after Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said the country’s Armed Forces are highly prepared to give a “crushing response to any threat at any level” against the Islamic Republic.

“The false assumptions that the US president has about the astonishing capabilities of the brave Iranian nation and the Armed Forces will never come true,” Baqeri said in a statement on Tuesday.